Being normal is the new different

Stephen Moyer was attracted by his conflicted character in The Gifted, where mutants are on the run, writes Seanna Cronin

MARVEL’S television universe has expanded to include mutants.

Set in an alternative timeline where the X-Men have disappeared and mutants are treated with distrust and fear, The Gifted follows parents Reed and Kate Strucker as they take their family on the run after they discover their children’s mutant abilities.

Their daughter Lauren can create force fields while their son Andy has a form of telekinesis which allows him to pull things apart. The Struckers find sanctuary with an underground community of mutants who have to fight to survive.

“Honestly I’ve spent seven years having crazy powers, and I wasn’t looking to do anything like that again,” Stephen Moyer, who played Vampire Bill in True Blood, tells The

Guide. “When this came along it was really nice because I thought that the story was very pertinent to today. I like the fact that my character (Reed) was one of the ordinary ones in a sea of different. In a way he’s the different one. He and his wife end up being the different ones because they are ‘normal’. Everyone in the underground system where they end up is different. We always talk about ‘the other’ and the person who is different, but really they’re the ones coming to terms with being normal.”

Reed is a man trying to balance his family responsibilities with his job as a district attorney who had supported the persecution of mutants.

“Some of the things that get uncovered in our world as we move along, he can’t quite believe he was party to some of it,” he says. “He loves his kids and he’s doing everything he can do make their lives better. He’s out there to try to do the best he can, but he’s the bad guy in some respects.

“Characters who have that push and pull of right and wrong are always interesting.”